Photovoltaic (herein, “PV”) mounting rail systems are commonly used to mount PV panel arrays to building structures, ground surfaces and a large variety of alternate configurations. In one common configuration, a set of rails are mounted, for example to a rooftop of a home, and the panel arrays are mounted thereto.
In general the PV industry is accustomed to mounting each rail to an underlying structure and using various mechanical fasteners such as nuts, bolts, washers and clamps to affix the panels to the rails. Each connection point is carefully measured and set in place and manually tightened, typically using common tools such as wrenches, sockets, ratchets and screwdrivers. The conventional methods of installation generally consume many man-hours of installation labor and must be placed in precise locations to accommodate the specific PV panels supplied for the installation.